


The Science Fair

by Imagines_Dreams



Series: Endgame Fix-It Oneshots [2]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aunt Peggy Carter, Science Fair, Tony calls her auntie, Young!Tony Stark, aka peggy carters a godmother, also howard is a jerk, howard stark is mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23183425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imagines_Dreams/pseuds/Imagines_Dreams
Summary: Decades before Tony Stark became Iron Man, before Peggy Carter lost her memories, before Jarvis was an AI, the three of them were at a science fair to see little Tony win the biggest trophy there. Well, partly. Peggy Carter, Edwin Jarvis, and Maria Stark were that for that, but Tony just wanted to prove himself to his father.
Relationships: Edwin Jarvis & Tony Stark, Maria Stark & Tony Stark, Peggy Carter & Edwin Jarvis, Peggy Carter & Edwin Jarvis & Tony Stark, Peggy Carter & Maria Stark, Peggy Carter & Tony Stark
Series: Endgame Fix-It Oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1357219
Comments: 6
Kudos: 64





	The Science Fair

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my drafts for the longest time, so I quickly finished it. I know it's not perfect, but this is just what I headcanon. Plus, we deserve a godmother!Peggy Carter! Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!

His father promised. He said he’d come. Howard Stark didn’t keep promises often, but if there was one thing Tony knew about Mr. Stark was that he always took every opportunity to see if his son could live up to the Stark name. So, if his father wanted to keep to that, he should come to his competition. 

“You should wait outside, Mr. Jarvis,” Tony said. 

His butler blinked a few times. “Are you sure, sir? Don’t you want-”

“Dear old dad said he’d be here, and he would hate it if you weren’t outside waiting.” He nodded towards the door. “Please, Mr. Jarvis.”

Mr. Jarvis nodded. “If you insist. Although, if I may, I do want to be here when they announce you as the winner.”

Tony laughed and shoved his butler towards the door. “I’ll come get you, ok?” When his butler didn’t budge, Tony whined and pushed him harder. “I promiseeeee.”

“Of course.” 

And so, his butler plucked the child off his legs and left him alone at his station. Tony moved his mouth back and forth and kept his hands by his side. In the back and he’s too imposing. In front and he’s too submissive. His father could come at any minute. He had to be presentable. He had to look like a Stark. Act like a Stark. Be a Stark. 

Maybe arms crossed would be better.

His robot poked his shoulder. 

The boy scoffed. “Not now.”

Still, his creation pestered him, nudging his shoulder as if it were a pet trying to gain some affection from its owner. Creator, if Tony were being honest. 

“He’ll be here,” Tony mumbled to his invention. “I’m proving myself today.” He sniffed and readjusted his clothes. 

Still, his robot whirred, spinning its claw and chirping. When Tony didn’t budge or even glance at his robot, the mechanical pet slowly and carefully dropped its spinning claw on his perfectly styled hair. “Hey!” Tony grabbed the arm of his robot and raised his eyebrow. “You can’t touch the hair.” He held up a finger to his robot, glaring cause the claw was still a tad too close. “Hair, off-limits.”

The claw spun quickly, fanning his already messy hair. 

Tony grimaced. “Not funny.” He blew his hair out of his face. “Dummy.”

His robot just beeped happily, and Tony honestly couldn’t help but laugh. “You like that name?”

His robot chirped again. It fanned his hair, and Tony laughed. “Ok, ok!” He let go of the claw and ran both of his hands through his hair. “Dummy,” he mumbled. “Well, that just sounds unprofessional.” He swiped his notebook off his table and flipped to a new page. “We need something that looks better on paper.” He tapped his pen against his forehead. 

His Dummy whirred and chirped. In morse code. 

So, Tony repeated, “D - U - M - E.” Tony nodded. “Needs a hyphen.” So, he wrote in big letters in his notebook. “D - U - M, then a hyphen, E. We’ll come up with a longer one later.” He held it up to Dum-E. “How does that look?”

Dum-E paused for a few seconds. Tony didn’t move. He knew his robot like the back of his hand, and he knew it would take a few seconds for Dum-E to analyze what’s in front of him. 

His robot chirped in approval.

Tony smiled. “Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand. “Dum-E.”

His creation stretched out its limb and closed its claw around his hand. Slowly and mechanically, Dum-E shook his hand up and down. 

Tony nodded. “Nice job.” He let go of the claw. “Damn, I’m good.”

“Language, Anthony.” The voice pierced the air, and for a second or two, the entire fair froze to acknowledge the powerful woman in the room. Well, except Tony.

Tony beamed. “Hi, Aunt Peg.”

The woman, dressed in her Sunday best, smiled ever so gently and crouched down. “I believe someone owes me a hug.”

“I didn’t put that in writing.”

She glared at him. Tony immediately laughed and let himself fall into her open arms. Aunt Peg squeezed him tightly, just for a second, before pulling away and squinting at his hair. “Can’t say I’m fond of this new style.”

“Blame Dum-E.” He pointed at his robot, who only beeped in protest. “He messed it up.”

“Well, you’re lucky Mr. Jarvis always carries hair product with him.” She pushed his hair back a few times, disguising the last one as a way to clear his forehead so she could kiss it. 

Tony cringed. “Aunt Peg,” he whined.

“Oh, don’t be like that.” 

“Spies shouldn’t kiss their godsons on the head.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. 

“I mean, businesswomen,” Tony lied. “I meant to say businesswomen, because spies don’t exist, and I definitely don’t notice it when you and Mr. Jarvis sneak in unknown and questionable objects into my father’s basement.”

Peggy smiled at her godson. She held him by the cheeks and admitted, “You’re too smart for your own good.” 

The boy shoved her off of him. “Of course, I am!” He ran back to Dum-E. “I mean, look at this!” Dum-E chirped and extended its claw. Tony smiled. “Built him all by myself. Dum-E’s entire program is built to observe and respond, even if he’s sometimes a dummy.”

Dum-E whirred in annoyance. 

The little genius scoffed and crossed his arms. “Still a dummy.”

The robot chirped.

Tony stiffened. He whipped around and pointed at his robot. “No, you!”

Godmother Peggy didn’t interfere. She let Tony argue with his creation in a language she knew she could never understand, just in awe of how special her godson was. And since she scanned the science fair ground when she entered, Peggy was certain Tony would win by a landslide, go to the state competition, national competition, maybe get some money that he’d end up giving to Maria to give to charity. 

And that was just from the science fair. Since Tony was four, playing with tools he shouldn’t have and tripping over scrap wood in his father’s workshop, Peggy knew that Anthony Stark would change the world. Maybe even better than his father did. 

Then, Mr. Jarvis comes in. “Howard won’t make it,” he whispered.

“Bastard.” Peggy shook her head.

“Aunt Peg?”

Suddenly, Peggy’s little godson, his head barely past her own waist, was staring up at her with those big brown eyes and messed up hair. “What happened?”

Peggy just smiled softly. “Don’t worry about it, my dear. You should be thinking of one thing, and one thing only.”

“The objective,” he said, mimicking the serious voice he had heard his godmother use when scolding someone

She smirked. “Yes. And the objective is what?”

“To do my best and beat all the other bastards here!” Little Tony jumped up in the air and yelled, “Yeah! I’m the best!”

Peggy glared at her godson, and when he noticed, he immediately smoothed out his shirt and nodded. “I mean to do my best.”

“Exactly. And, let me remind you, who uses bad words in the house?”

“You do,” Tony admitted.

“And your father?”

“Steals them without your permission.”

She laughed. “That’s my boy. Smartest godson I could have.”

“Anthony!” Maria Stark burst through the doors, a crowd of photographers and reporters trying to follow her. “There he is!” She dropped to the floor and kissed her son on the cheek. Once. Twice. Three times.

“Mom!” Tony laughed and shoved her away. “My hair,” he pouted, trying to fix it.

“Oh, your hair, so sorry.” She looked to her butler. “If you could, Mr. Jarvis.”

The man nodded. “Anytime, Mrs. Stark.” He took out some hair gel and applied it to the kid’s hair. “You will be the best looking young man in the room,” Mr. Jarvis said.

Tony smiled. “I will! Then, when Dad comes in, we’ll have two of the best-looking men here!”

The three adults fell silent but tried to keep up their polite smiles. Peggy sighed. After Mr. Jarvis was done with Tony’s hair, she crouched down and held his hands. “Sweetheart, I have to tell you something, but I won’t tell you unless you promise me something.”

Tony made a disgusted face. “Promise what?”

“That you’ll beat the other bastards in this fair.”

“Peggy!” Maria cried. 

“Maria, please.” Peggy asked again, “Can you promise me that?”

Tony nodded. “Duh. No one can come close to Dum-E!”

“I know that.” She sighed. “You’re not gonna like what I’m about to say, and that’s ok, alright?” She paused and let Tony process that. Then, she admitted, “Your father, he’s not coming. I’m sorry.”

Tony’s face seemed to be on pause. His smile never fell. It was still there. But what made everyone there uneasy was the light that fell from his eyes. “Dad’s not coming?” he repeated.

Peggy tried her best. “I know it’s hard, but you must know that you are doing so well. Better than everyone else, ok? And we’re here.”

“That’s right,” Mr. Jarvis said. “We’re here to support you and see you win that trophy!”

Maria explained, “Your father’s just very busy with work. He wanted to come.”

At that, Peggy and Mr. Jarvis stared at Maria, knowing that she’d defend Howard but still wondering how she could after all this time. 

While Peggy glared at her godson’s mother for lying again, Mr. Jarvis swooped in and held Tony by his upper arms. “You feeling alright, Tony?”

“Yeah. Of course, why would I feel different?” He licked his lips and backed away from his family. “I mean, I just thought that since he promised and said he’d be here that he’d be here, but he’s not, so I guess I’ll just deal with him being too busy to watch me beat these losers and get that trophy, and if he doesn’t want to see it, fine!” His lower lip was trembling, and his fists clenched. “Well, you know what? I don’t want to see him!” 

“Tony!” Maria scolded. She immediately regretted it, because her son was crying. “Sweetheart-”

“No!” Tony ran off, away from Dum-E and the science fair. 

“Mr. Jarvis, stay here and watch the robot, stall the judges for as long as you can.” Peggy held out her hand to Maria. “Come on, let’s go.” Once Mrs. Stark’s hand was in hers, Peggy ran through the crowd of parents and teachers and students and followed her godson. “You have to stop forgiving him,” Peggy said in between breaths. 

“He told me he was busy,” Maria reasoned. “Howard is always working, you know?”

“Maria, you’re smarter than that.” Once out of the crowded room, Peggy scanned the hallways. Everything was empty. There weren’t any visual cues as to where her godson would be. Instead, she listened. And just like that, there was a low and subtle creak of a door to her left. So that’s where she went. One of the doors was only nearly closed, so she slowly opened it and found her godson behind all the desks. The little boy, who had just been proclaiming how he was going to beat all the other bastards with his smarts was crying in the corner and hugging his knees to his chest. 

Slowly, Peggy closed the door and turned to his mother. “I’m going to go in and calm him down-”

“No, I should go in. I’m his mother.”

“I know. That’s why you’re the last step.” She pointed at the door. ‘This needs a delicate touch. He’s broken right now. I’ll gather up the pieces, and you can glue them back together before sending him to Mr. Jarvis for a final fashion check.”

Maria sighed. “Fine. But, Howard really did want to be here. He told me so himself.”

Too tired and frustrated to argue, Peggy just smiled and gently, she opened the door. She knocked on the wall. “Hello, Anthony.”

The boy looked up just to catch his godmother’s eye before ducking his head back down behind his knees. “I don’t” -a sob- “wanna talk right now.”

“That’s alright.” She crossed the room and sat down next to him. “I’ll be right here.”

For a few moments, the two just sat there. Tony cried into his arms, and Peggy just stared at the opposite wall, trying to contain herself from hugging him. Then, finally, Tony’s sobs turned to simple sniffles. Exhausted, he let his head drop on his godmother’s shoulder.

Peggy wrapped an arm around her godson. “I know sorry won’t do much,” she said. “And I know that you really wanted your father to be here-”

“He could’ve seen that I’m really a Stark today, Aunt Peg.” 

Her eyes widened. “Anthony, you are a Stark!” She turned to him and held his face in her hands. Wiping away his tears, she stated with confidence, “Even better than your father, actually.” She shook her head. “Anthony, dear, does your father tell you otherwise?”

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know.” He sniffed. “Kinda.” He explained further. “He doesn’t like all my ideas. Says they’re not strong enough, and that Stark men are strong.” The boy trembled in her arms. 

“I see. And you think that since your inventions aren’t strong enough, then you’re not a Stark. Is that correct?”

“Mhm.”

“Oh, my dear.” Peggy turned her godson so he could face her and crouched down to look at his face. He still had some chub on his cheeks, a sign he was growing older right before her eyes, and she couldn’t believe how brilliant he was, how smart he was at this young age. She wiped away his tears. “Anthony, you are the best kid I know. The smartest kid. The most innovative, and the strongest.”

He sniffed. “The strongest?”

“Yes!” She smiled. “Do you know how many kids would run if they saw what was in your father’s lab? Or what about the time Mr. Jarvis and I were handling that large case with that black stuff inside it. You stared at it with fascination I’ve only seen in agents and asked if it was non-Newtonian.” The spy laughed and held his hand. “You have more strength in your little hand than some of my field agents.” With a smile, she nuzzled his nose with her own. “You’re my brilliant godson. Don’t let your father’s stupidity bar you from beating all those bastards.”

Then, Tony smiled, and he laughed. “Auntie,” he whined. 

“There you are!” Peggy swept him up in her arms and spun him around. As he laughed and giggled, she said, “There’s my beautiful boy! Finally!” She hugged him close and put him down. “Now, your mother’s waiting outside. You talk to her, then afterward, to Mr. Jarvis so he can fix that hair, and then, a picture with your trophy. Sound good?”

He nodded.

Peggy stood up and straightened out her outfit. “Would you like me to hold your hand?”

He shook his head. 

“Ok, let’s go then.”

She followed Tony outside the room where he was enveloped in a hug from his mother. Maria smiled at Peggy, and the godmother smiled back before heading back inside the science fair to stand with Mr. Jarvis. 

“How is he?” he asked.

“Better,” Peggy said. “Although, we must discuss Howard’s parenting as soon as we can.”

“I agree.” Mr. Jarvis sighed. Then, he added, “Mrs. Stark does have the best intentions.”

“Anthony needs better than that.” She sighed. “I’m going to set up a room for him. At our safe house. Just in case.”

He nodded. “Unfortunately, I do agree with you.” 

“Good. Then, we are in agreement.”

“That we are.”

Soon, the two Starks came back. Mr. Jarvis fixed his hair and clothes. And soon, it was like it had never happened. The judges came by. The rounds went on and on. The awards were given out.

Tony Stark won first place. No one was even close. 

A picture was taken. A little Tony Stark, his mother’s arms wrapped around his torso and a bright smile adorning her face. Mr. Jarvis was behind them, staring quizzically at the robot, named DUM-E in the article that printed it. Peggy Carter was cut out of the photo, (she had called in a favor with her friend), but in the photo Maria was sent, Peggy was next to Maria, smiling fondly at her godson.


End file.
